SENEX

Humans with incipient dementia are still able to master their daily life self-dependently. They try to bypass their phases of confusion unnoticed by others and continue participating in public life as long as possible. While we consider a lost moment at home within a sheltered environment rather uncritical, disorientation in transit may have severe consequences. Smart technical support systems may help affected persons to recall their temporarily forgotten intensions on their own. Yet, such systems must react automatically, i.e., without any interaction by their users, and context-sensitively offer aid just in the moment of confusion. Electronic reminders and todo-lists are ineffective when disoriented persons do not think about their smartphones. This is the point for our considerations: We want to know whether it is technically feasible to automatically detect moments of confusion and to quantify them – and if yes, which measuring method would be the best concerning public mobility? We know that episodes of confusion in dementia cannot be measured via brain waves, and also other vital signs are inappropriate for real-time recognition.